What was the name of King Arthur's castle? King Arthur's Castle: description, photos, legends

The paths of the legends of King Arthur are the heritage of the Celts.

Is King Arthur a myth or a real hero? This is what we have to find out, starting our journey from England, Cornwall, through Winchester, then moving by car through Wales, the sites of the battles of King Arthur and his knights of the round table, through the “Lake District” and the castles of the north of England - to Caledonia (Scotland) , to Edinburgh to the throne of Arthur, the place of his strategic decisions, Stirling...Where is he from, King Arthur, who fought against the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans, who were attacking Britain? Who is he and his knights?

For a week in the UK - with romantic content, dreams and legends about King Arthur, elves, wizards and witches, the knights of the Round Table. Only these places send shivers down the spine: “Witch” Mountain, a fairytale forest, the caves of King Arthur, the round table of knights, Camelot Castle - a fabulous place of peace and harmony, Avalon, a mythical island from Celtic legends, Arthur’s throne, a lake with ghosts...!

It was from the time of King Arthur that the mysterious legend of the Holy Grail began to circulate. And we will also plunge into the love affair of Arthur and Genevere (Gwenevere), the story of her betrayal with Lancelot... We will understand the symbols and predictions, the code of honor of knights, we will talk about legends, about the royal sword... Parallel: the famous bow of Odysseus could not draw even one of the contenders for Penelope's hand. But our “immortal solar warrior” Arthur is alive to this day, like Saint Michael, the lord of light, who defeated the forces of darkness.

Schematically, this is what the journey looks like: Tintagel, Winchester, Glastonbury, Merlin's tomb, Hadrian's wall, Eboracum (York), Chester, Alnwick...:

Day 1, 2, 3 - England (south and Wales)

Day 4, 5 - Northern England and Scottish Borders

Day 6 - Edinburgh

Day 7 - Scotland

Arrival in London (south airport - Gatwick). Departure from Edinburgh.

Nobody does this tour in the UK - it's my own product, my magic box!

Starting from a mystical place, the ruins of Tintagel Castle (from November 1 to February 12, the castle is open only on weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), we will see with our own eyes that Arthur lived and his spirit still hovers over the country (there is a belief that he did not die from his wounds in his last battle at Camlan in 517 AD, that fairies and elves saved him and took him to the paradise island of Avalon, hoping that one fine day this noble knight Arthur would return to help your country). Intriguing?

The place of Tintagel (or sometimes it is translated into Russian as Tintagel, which I don’t like at all, because Tintagel is closer to mysticism) literally captivates, wraps itself in mysticism and magnetism. The wild, rugged slate coast of Cornwall, the rocky shores that have held the sea at bay for centuries, the crashing waves. And below is an idyll: completely turquoise water (of course, due to copper impurities, or maybe because of the magic of fairies?), and there, below, is Merlin’s castle in the gorge, where Arthur was taken to be raised by Merlin. And this impression of mysticism intensifies when, with the tide, this grotto, Merlin’s cave goes under the water... Rising and descending along a string of narrow stairs, sometimes vertical... we will see the ancient stonework of the Celts, their gates, ruins of buildings, towers... And all this is so mystical, architecturally complex. Visible traces of Celtic culture of the 5th-6th centuries, Druids, Troubadours….

Having driven a little east from Tintagel Castle, we will find ourselves on the Bodmin moorland. Plain, boulders, peat bogs, swamps... There are more than enough ghosts here. Local farmers say that from time to time they see a huge cat here that devours their livestock. Do you believe it? But someone angered the farmers. Of course, we will also need to see Lake Dozmari with our own eyes, which was always considered bottomless. The ghost of Cornwall, Jan Treageagle, having sold his soul to the devil, is still trying to scoop up water from this lake... Also, according to legend, King Arthur asked his faithful knight Bedivere to throw (drown) his sword Excalibur in Lake Dozmary. You know what happened then - a hand from the water marked three circles in the air with a sword and immediately disappeared into the watery depths. Celtic circles of eternity...

And in Edinburgh, in addition to Arthur's Seat, we will climb Carlton Hill, where, according to legend, the Celtic fire festival was celebrated on the night of May 1 and King Arthur's wife was often crowned with a flower crown. At this time, the knights of the Round Table competed in dexterity and courage in tournaments. And the girls had to walk early in the morning barefoot through the morning dew, wash their faces with it, so that heaven would grant eternal youth... Celtic traditions are still alive today.

It is not possible to describe all the details of the tour in detail here, but if you have a serious desire to travel along this route of King Arthur from England to Scotland - let me know (what hotel preferences along the route I can choose for you, with what comfort, what more wishes) as soon as possible, so that I can find time in my schedule for you. I will be waiting for your order!

Thank you. Your personal guide to England and Scotland is Tatiana White.

You and I are studying the English language, its grammar, methods of studying and teaching it; we read some texts, do exercises, write essays... What do we know about the country whose language we are studying?

The history of England, the Kingdom of England, dates back to ancient times. This is a very interesting subject for discussion, full of secrets and legends. I would like to leave grammar, phonetics, teaching English for a while and talk about the founding of Britain and the legendary King Arthur, whose reign can be considered the period of the formation of England!

The British people are the descendants of the tribes of Britons and Anglo-Saxons who inhabited Foggy Albion in ancient times. The exact year of the founding of England is not known, but the 5th century AD is known - the beginning of the landing of the Angles and Saxons on the British shores. And approximately in the V-VI centuries. There was a legendary leader of the Briton tribe - King Arthur.

The tales of King Arthur are a whole literary and historical epic! King Arthur is the central character of numerous chivalric romances, songs, ballads, stories, tales, poems and poems. Monuments and sculptures were erected in his honor. Historians still doubt the existence of such a person in British history. However, this did not stop the people of England from believing in him and creating legends about him. Even if he did not exist in reality, nevertheless, every nation needs its heroes. One thing is certain - this hero had a historical prototype.

Legend has it that King Arthur gathered the best knights at his court in Camelot, who entered the category of the so-called Knights of the Round Table. The most famous of them are Lancelot, Percival, Gawain and others. The exact number of knights is unknown, because different authors give different data: someone talks about twelve, someone mentions sixteen knights, etc.

What did Arthur and his knights do? Of course, first of all, these are feats of arms, battles, duels. They also tried to find the Holy Grail - the legendary cup into which the blood of Christ was collected during the crucifixion. And they were also engaged in rescuing beautiful ladies.

We lift the veil of the legend...

There are many legends about King Arthur, but they all boil down to approximately the same plot.

Uther Pendragon was the king of Britain. And he managed to fall in love with Igraine, the wife of Duke Gorlois of Tintagel Castle (as if there were no unmarried girls at that time!). To spend the night with her, Uther asked the wizard Merlin to give him the guise of the duke, her husband. Merlin agreed on the condition that the born child would be given to him to raise. Uther agreed, and a few years later he was poisoned and anarchy began in the country (this is what happens if you get involved with someone else's wife).

Merlin endowed the newborn Arthur with strength and courage, then gave him to the old knight Sir Ector to be raised. Twenty years later, Merlin presented the knights with a sword stuck in a stone, on which it was written that whoever could pull out the sword would be destined to be king. Guess who managed to pull out the sword? Of course it's Arthur. Merlin revealed to him the secret of his birth and origin. But you can't fool cunning knights! Everyone wanted to be the king of England. Arthur had to win his right to the throne with a sword in his hands.

Legend has it that, having become king, Arthur made the city of Camelot the capital of England, gathering around him the best and strongest knights of the world, who sat with him at the Round Table (oh, that legendary Round Table!). He married the beautiful Queen Guinevere and a happy life began.

As they say, nothing lasts forever under the moon, and the Sword-of-Stone broke in Arthur's duel with Sir Pellinore. But Merlin did not leave his ward in difficult situations; he promised him another sword. The new sword Excalibur struck without a miss. It was forged by the elves of Lake Vatelin, and the Lady of the Lake herself gave it to Arthur with the condition that he would expose it only for a just cause and return it to her when the time came.

But not everything is so rosy! Once, during a walk, the beautiful Guinevere was kidnapped by the scoundrel Melegant. Lancelot, one of Arthur's best knights, without waiting for help, broke into Melegant's castle alone, killed him and freed the queen. Love broke out between them and Guinevere cheated on her husband with Lancelot.

The cunning Mordred, Arthur's nephew and, according to rumors, his illegitimate son, found out about this. He reported the treason to the king. Beside himself with anger, Arthur sent Mordred with a detachment to arrest Guinevere and Lancelot; the queen was in danger of being burned at the stake. But Lancelot freed Guinevere and together they fled across the sea. Arthur went in pursuit of them, leaving the treacherous Mordred as his deputy. He took advantage of the opportunity and seized power.

Having learned about this, Arthur was forced to return and restore order in the country. But the cunning Mordred was not going to give up power. The armies of Arthur and Mordred converged on the Cammlan field. During the battle, Mordred fell, struck by Arthur's spear, but he himself dealt a mortal blow to the king.

At Arthur's request, the sword Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake, and the sad ladies escorted him on a boat to the island of Avalon. Legend has it that he still sleeps on this island, but at the right time he will come to save Britain. Thus ends the heroic tale of King Arthur.

King Arthur in English class

If you have chosen this topic for a lesson or extracurricular activity, then this is a very interesting decision. Holding such an event or lesson will be interesting for both the teacher, the children, and the guests present.

• Since this is the Middle Ages, you can decorate the classroom in the appropriate style. Let your students help you, it's a lot of fun. On the walls there can be images of ancient coats of arms, swords and shields made of cardboard, in general, everything that you consider necessary
• The guys themselves can be heroes of the legend, dressed in appropriate clothes: Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Lancelot, etc.
• Organize expressive readings of excerpts from the ballads about King Arthur. To do this, use the works of Alfred Tennyson, Terence White and other authors on this topic
• Perform short theatrical performances and dramatizations using stories from the life of Arthur and his circle, having previously composed dialogues in English
• Include excerpts from King Arthur-themed films or cartoons into your event
• The classroom can also be decorated with children’s drawings and posters. Since the exact year of the king’s birth is unknown, there may be an inscription on the board in English, made in the old style: “Once upon a time, in the Vth century...” (Once upon a time in the fifth century...).

We are writing an essay about a legendary hero!

Whether there was such a character in the history of England, whether it is a collective image or an invention of popular imagination, just a legend - every country needs heroes, those images that you can look up to, from whom you want to take an example. Still, there is reason to believe that such a person existed, because we find partial confirmation of this in English literature.

The story of King Arthur also has instructive sides. She teaches courage, strength, fearlessness, friendship, responsibility for one's duty. This is also an instructive tale about how, sometimes, a woman can become the culprit for everything: power is lost, the country collapses.

The Tale of King Arthur is a great topic for a history lesson, an English lesson, or an integrated English and history lesson. If you have received the task of writing an essay about this king and giving a detailed answer about him, then we bring to your attention how this can be done in English.

I want to tell you about the king Arthur. It is a legendary king of England. We don’t know the exact year of his birth. But we know that he had lived in the Vth century. England is very proud of this king; he is a British historical hero, one of the symbols of the country.

The king Arthur is famous by his strength, courage, justice. Everybody, and not only in England, knows about Camelot, the Knights of the Round table, the queen Guinevere, the knight Lancelot, Merlin, etc. All these personages are the heroes of British epic poems, songs and stories.

Arthur's tutor was the wise magician Merlin. He taught him about strength and wisdom. Arthur became a king after he had pulled the sword from the stone. He gathered the best knights from the entire world. Everybody knows about the Knights of the Round Table. His wife was the beautiful Guinevere.

King Arthur is the main hero of many legends, stories, poems, songs. He is a symbol of courage and wisdom.

This is the kind of essay-story we came up with. And here is his translation:

I want to tell you about King Arthur. This is the legendary king of England. We do not know the exact year of his birth. But we know that he lived in the fifth century. England is proud of its king; he is a British historical hero, one of the symbols of this country.

King Arthur is famous for his courage, strength, and justice. Everyone knows, and not only in England, about Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, Queen Guinevere, the knight Lancelot, Merlin, etc. All these characters are heroes of British epic poems, songs and stories.

Arthur's mentor was the wise wizard Merlin. He taught him strength and wisdom. Arthur became king after he pulled the sword from the stone. He gathered the best knights from all over the world. Everyone has heard of the Knights of the Round Table. His wife was the beautiful Guinevere.

King Arthur is the main character of many legends, stories, poems, and songs. It is a symbol of courage and wisdom.

You can, of course, tell the legend in full, but it will take a lot of time. It is enough to outline in general terms what this legendary personality is.

King Arthur in cinema

This historical character still excites the minds and hearts of history and art lovers. King Arthur is a hero not only of the historical epic, but also of modern literature and cinema. Until now, many authors write about him, taking the legend of Arthur as a basis, but performing it in their own way. Arthur is also a hero of painting and sculpture. Directors and screenwriters do not ignore this legendary character.

We bring to your attention several films about the legendary king of England, which you can watch in English with Russian or English subtitles, or with Russian translation. These films will not leave you indifferent, but will help you discover something new in the image and character of Arthur.

• So, 1953, the American film “Knights of the Round Table”. You will plunge into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages of England and the court of King Arthur. Wonderful acting and setting.
• The year is 1981, the film "Excalibur". This film is based on the novel by Thomas Malory. The film is stunning in its epicness and believability. Oscar Award and Cannes Film Festival Award. You will get great aesthetic pleasure from viewing.
• 1995 gives us the film “The First Knight”. This is a loose interpretation of the legend of the famous king, and much of the focus is on Lancelot. But the setting, costumes, castles, acting and Richard Gere in the title role do their job.
• Year 1998. A cartoon for children “The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot” was released. This cartoon can be watched by the whole family. You will be captivated by the adventures and interesting situations that the main characters encounter every now and then.
• The famous 2004 adventure film King Arthur starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley will keep you in pleasant suspense for two hours. But it's worth it! Beautiful costumes, the atmosphere of the era, a new performance of the legend about the king will help the viewer learn something new regarding this topic.
• Of the most recent works about the legendary king, 2014 should be mentioned, in which the start of filming of a new film on this topic was announced. The director of the film “Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur” will be the famous Guy Ritchie. The film tells the story of Arthur's youth and his rise as king.

We wish you pleasant viewing!

The legendary Camelot - the castle and capital of King Arthur, the hero of numerous medieval tales, poems and novels - could be located on the territory of the former Roman fort Camulodunum near the city of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. This was stated by Professor of English Literature Peter Field, a note published on the website of Bangor University from North Wales, where Professor Field taught from 1964 to 2004.

King Arthur is known to us primarily from a series of medieval chivalric novels written in verse in the 12th century in northern France in the historical region of Champagne. In particular, the French courtly poet Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135 - c. 1183) lived there, from whom several such novels have survived to this day. A number of them (“Erek and Enida”, “Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion”, “Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart”, “The Tale of the Grail, or Percival”) mention King Arthur and his court located in Camelot.

Attempts to link the legendary image of Arthur to one or another historical figure have been made repeatedly, but all of them remain unconvincing. In the novels, Arthur appears as an ideal king, a defender of the chivalric code of honor and the laws of courtliness (in the late novel Le Morte d'Arthur, created by Thomas Malory in the 14th century, Arthur appears as the emperor of the entire Christian world, fighting against the infidels). According to many historians of medieval literature, Camelot is not an actual geographical place, but an ideal backdrop for the adventures of Arthur's subjects - the younger and more active knights. According to this interpretation, Camelot is a symbolically significant concept - its borders extend to the territory in which the laws of knightly honor operate, the protector and guarantor of which is King Arthur.

Historians, in an attempt to identify King Arthur with a real medieval ruler, turn to the history of the conquest of the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxons during the Great Migration in the 5th-6th centuries. It is believed that Arthur must have been one of the leaders of the local Celtic population who tried to resist the invaders. Accordingly, Camelot in this case is usually localized in the north or west of England, since the Anglo-Saxons arrived on the island from the south and east - at Caerleon Castle in Wales, the city of Chester in Cheshire in the west of England and in other places.

Professor Field's research draws on the Latin name and strategic significance of Fort Camulodunum. The phonetic processes that took place in the Germanic languages ​​during the Great Migration should, according to the professor, lead to the fact that the name of this place, which in Latin means “fort in honor of the god Camul,” began to be pronounced as Camelot. Although the former Roman fort was small and had fallen into disrepair by 500, its location continued to be important to the Britons - Camulodunum is located on a strategic road that connected the two centers of resistance to the Anglo-Saxon invasion: Chester in the west and York in the north.

According to Professor Field, he became interested in searching for historical Camelot a year and a half ago, but the idea came to him suddenly: “I was looking at old maps, and suddenly all the evidence lined up in my head. I believe I have solved a 1,400-year-old mystery," Field said.

Recently there was a historical discovery associated with the name of another famous medieval ruler - the first Christian king of Norway, during his lifetime known as Olaf the Fat, who began to be revered by the Roman Catholic Church as Olaf the Holy ((reigned 1015–1028). Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Affairs heritage discovered the remains of an 11th century church in Trondheim, which was the first center of veneration of Olaf.You can read more about this in our

P The stories about Arthur have been known for more than a thousand years. They were still told long before the crusaders' campaigns in the Holy Land, Columbus's discovery of America and the appearance of the tragedies of William Shakespeare.

The earliest mention of Arthur's name survives in the Welsh poem I Gododdin, written after the Battle of Catraeth around 600. The bard Aneirin reported that a warrior named Gwaurddir cut down many enemies and left them to be devoured by ravens, “though he was not Arthur.” Without a doubt, by the seventh century Arthur was renowned as a knight unrivaled on the battlefield. At least the listeners of Aneirin's poem knew about him.

But who was Arthur? As a historical figure, he raises a lot of questions and doubts. If the early chronicles are anything to go by, he was not a king at all. Arthur fought alongside the kings of the Britons, but the chroniclers represent him as dux bellorum, “chief of the Britons,” that is, military leader. When the Romans withdrew from Britain in the fifth century, the Britons had to fend off invasions by the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Picts and Scots. The real Arthur is most likely remembered as a great military strategist who led the British fight against the invaders. According to legend, he won many victories in the battles for the independence of his land. Based on fragmentary historical evidence, various versions of Arthur's personality have emerged from time to time. He has been portrayed as a Bronze Age warrior, a Welsh war chief, a Northern Briton trained in the Roman cavalry, a descendant of a Roman Sarmatian warrior, a Roman general who became emperor, and a ruler (or war chief) of the ancient Scottish kingdom of Dal Riada.

However, the name of Arthur was actually immortalized by the Welsh church minister Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote about him in 1135, five hundred years after the alleged life of our hero, in the epochal work “Historia Regum Britanniae”, “History of the Kings of Britain”. Geoffrey collected all the known legends and tales about Arthur, reworked them and for the first time created a full-blooded image of King Arthur, as we know him today. In the era of Geoffrey of Monmouth, his work attracted severe criticism as pure fiction and fantasy. Nevertheless, the History of the Kings of Britain gained great popularity and spawned an entire genre of literature in the Middle Ages.

Uther Pendragon was inflamed with passion for Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, the most beautiful lady in all of Britain. Uther fell madly in love with her, but he could not overwhelm the castle's defenses. Merlin helped him sneak into the citadel under the guise of a duke and spend the night with Igraine. She succumbed to deception, thinking that her husband was next to her, and that night Arthur was conceived. When Arthur was born, Merlin took the child and gave it to Sir Ector, who raised him with his son Kay, passing on the art of knighthood to them.

In the fifteenth century, the epic poem Le Morte d'Arthur was written while in captivity by Sir Thomas Malory. He reworked and rearranged Arthurian legends in his own way, creating a completely original version. His treatment of the story of King Arthur and his knights, in turn, influenced subsequent poets, writers and artists such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Mark Twain, Terence White, T.S. Eliot, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The details vary from work to work, but the general outline of the narrative about Arthur’s life remains the same. The birth of Arthur is directly related to the sorcery of the wizard Merlin.

The King of the Britons, Uther Pendragon, gathered all the knights and barons for the Easter celebration. Among the guests was Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. He brought his beautiful wife Igraine with him to the court, and King Uther, as soon as he saw her, was inflamed with an irresistible desire for intimacy with her. His passion turned out to be so naked that Gorlois was forced to leave the feast, return to Cornwall, hide his wife in Tintagel Castle and prepare for war. King Uther pursued Gorlois and besieged Tintagel Castle.

The fortress was located on a rocky cape protruding far into the sea. The impregnable citadel of Gorlois could be defended by three men against an entire army. Uther, exhausted from passion, begged Merlin to help him. The wizard, using magic, gave the king the appearance of a duke, and Uther easily entered the castle and took possession of Igraine. That night she conceived a child.

Gorlois died, and Uther convinced Igraine to marry him, since he was the father of the unborn child. But Uther also died before his son was born. Arthur was born when a storm broke out and the waves frantically rushed against the rocks that held Tintagel Castle. As soon as the baby was weaned, Merlin took the boy. Igraine remained with her daughter Morgana the Fairy, Arthur's half-sister, to mourn her deceased husbands.

Tintagel, Tintagel, Tint "adjel. With the light hand of translators who do not understand anything about the Cornish language, in Russian it is called Tintagel or Tintagel. In fact, the name of the castle is read as Tint "adjel - with the emphasis on the second syllable. This castle is famous primarily for the fact that it was there that the legendary King Arthur, the son of Igraine and Uther Pendragon, was conceived and born.

Tintagel Castle is located near the town of Tintagel in Cornwall in southwest England. The ruins of the castle are located on a high cliff, which is constantly washed away by the sea. If in past times it simply stood on the edge of a cliff, now the castle is actually located on two separate rocks. The photographs above show the two halves of Tintagel Castle (or rather, what is left of it). The wind is constantly blowing from the sea, and with such force that it seems that you can lie down in the wind! To get to any part of the castle, you need to climb long, steep stairs. But of course, the ruins themselves are very picturesque.

Ruins of Tintagel Castle.

A miraculously preserved doorway with a coat of arms. The castle was built next to a settlement that had existed here since Roman times. The remains of this settlement are also decorated in the form of neat ruins, and any dangerous places are surrounded by a fence. For example, there is a tunnel in the rock. They're not allowed there, but it's easy to imagine Merlin and Uther sneaking through it to do their dirty deed :)

The wizard gave Arthur to be raised in the house of the noble Sir Ector. Arthur grew up with Kay, the son of Hector, and learned the science of knighthood. At that time, Britain was going through difficult times and had no sovereign. Petty princes and barons fought with each other, and the people waited for the appearance of a real king, capable of drawing a sword from a stone. The sword in the stone was in a churchyard in London. The weapon was stuck into a heavy blacksmith's anvil and pierced the stone that lay beneath it. Many knights and barons tried to pull the blade out, but could not. Only young Arthur managed to do this. When he pulled the sword from the stone, he was proclaimed king.

Having become sovereign, Arthur gathered the most valiant knights to fight the enemies of the Britons. When his sword broke, the Maiden of the Lake gave him the magical blade Excalibur. Many rulers and lords of Britain swore allegiance to Arthur, and he built the powerful castle of Camelot. The wizard Merlin created the Round Table, at which Arthur's knights met as equals. The kingdom of the Britons began to live in peace and joy, Arthur ruled it with justice and law. His lands prospered and the people were happy. Arthur wanted love, and he married the maiden Guinevere. The noble Sir Lancelot, Arthur's best friend, became a knight of Guinevere, and a secret love affair began between him and the queen. This secretive affair later led to the collapse of the Round Table and the fall of King Arthur.

Arthur removes the sword from the stone. Excalibur.

On Trinity Day, when King Arthur and his knights gathered at the Round Table, a miraculous vision of the Holy Grail appeared before them. Arthur ordered the knights to find the sacred object, and the legendary journeys and searches for the Holy Grail began. The names of Sir Percival, Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad are primarily associated with them. Sir Percival met the Fisher King and watched a mysterious procession with the Holy Grail in his castle. Sir Gawain crossed the Sword Bridge and passed the test of the Bed of Death. Sir Lancelot succumbed to the charms of the sorceress and made love to Elaine of Corbenic, mistaking her for Guinevere. Elaine is the daughter of the Grail King Pelles, a descendant of Joseph of Arimathea. Lancelot and Elaine had a son, Galahad, who was destined to become a perfect knight, king of the city of Sarras and achieve the Grail.

The story of King Arthur ended tragically. Arthur's other half-sister, Morgause, appeared at the court of Camelot and seduced the king. She gave birth to a son, Mordred. Fairy Morgana began to plot against Arthur so that the throne would pass to Mordred. Thanks to Morgana's intrigues, Arthur learned about his wife's amorous relationship with Lancelot, and the queen was accused of treason. She was sentenced to be burned at the stake. At the last moment, Lancelot appeared at the execution site and saved Guinevere from the fire. Lancelot, making his way to her, was forced to fight with his fellow knights and killed Sir Gawain's brothers. Guinevere was saved, but exhausted by remorse and repentance, she left Lancelot and Arthur and retired to a monastery. King Arthur pursued Lancelot, and a war broke out between them; Taking advantage of the moment, the treacherous Mordred tried to usurp his father's throne.

The last and bloodiest battle took place. The Knights of the Round Table, loyal to Arthur, fought with the army of Mordred. Below Camlan the field was strewn with dead bodies and dying knights; son and father did not yield to each other and fought to the end. Mordred mortally wounded Arthur, but the king managed to finish off his usurper son. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, described the battle this way:

So the thunder of battle rumbled all day long
By the winter sea, among the hills,
And to the paladins of the Round Table
The land of Lyonesse became the grave.
Mortally wounded king
The brave Bedivere took him in his arms -
Sir Bedivere, last among the living, -
And he carried it to a chapel at the edge of the fields.
Ruined altar and ancient cross
The wasteland was black; ocean
Stretched out to the right, the lake lay down
Levey; the full moon was shining.

In the twelfth century, the monks of Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset claimed to have found the tomb of Arthur and his queen. They excavated the ground between two stone pyramids and discovered an ancient lead cross with the inscription "Rex Arturius"("King Arthur"). Beneath the cross was a hollowed-out oak trunk containing the remains of a tall man and woman.

The Welsh, descendants of Arthur's Britons, believe that Arthur neither died nor was buried. In Wales they say about something unreal or meaningless: "As unreasonable as Arthur's grave." This reflects the long-standing stereotype that Arthur is alive and will one day appear and lead the Britons against the enemy if danger threatens them again.

Some believe that Arthur rests on the enchanted island of Avalon. According to legends told throughout Britain, King Arthur and his knights sleep in a hollow hill awaiting the call to battle. The legendary Arthur is a tragic character, “a king once and a king to come.”

King Arthur is one of the most famous mythological heroes in human history. He is known all over the world. Thousands of books have been written about the adventures of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Tales about them are depicted in paintings, stained glass windows, frescoes, films, musical works, dramatizations and shows, television series, plays, cartoons, comics, computer games and websites. Theme parks, attractions, tourist attractions, pizzerias, children's toys and board games, and thousands of other consumer products bear the name of King Arthur. He became an idol of the mystical New Age movement. Places associated with Arthur and his knights, such as Glastonbury and Stonehenge, have become centers of modern pilgrimage where people go in search of their Grail. The legendary Arthur acquired such magical popularity that a knight of the Dark Ages could not even imagine.

Glastonbury: Church of the Holy Virgin Mary.
The side arches of the cathedral are the hallmark of Glastonbury Abbey.

Among the patchwork colors of fields and green hills of Somerset, the small English town of Glastonbury is lost; according to legend, it is there that the legendary “Isle of Avalon” is located. The city is very old, people have been living in this place for more than two thousand years. Every year thousands of pilgrims, believers and non-believers, travel to Glastonbury in search of the mystical Isle of Avalon, the Grail and Arthurian legends. Two parallel worlds coexist at Glastonbury: a modern twenty-first century town with a typical rural lifestyle, and a haven for fans of New Age ideas, along with tourists hanging around vegetarian cafes and alternative bookshops.

The city itself is a village around a hill called Glastonbury Tor. In the middle of the city, like broken gravestones, stand the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. According to legend, in the place where the Chapel of Our Lady is now located, Joseph of Arimathea built the first Christian church in all of Britain. Joseph, having left the Holy Land, went to France along with Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Martha, Mary of Bethany and their maid Marcella. Joseph then sailed to Britain. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich and noble member of the Sanhedrin, from the city of Arimathea and one of the first ascetics of Christ. After the crucifixion, it was Joseph who asked Pilate for the body of the executed Jesus, and received permission to take it down from the cross. He gave his tomb for the burial of Jesus, collected his blood from the Last Supper in a chalice, and it is believed that it was he who brought the Holy Grail to England - that very chalice, and hid it - in a source called Chalice Well in Glastonbury.

In those distant times, Glastonbury did not look like an ordinary hill, as it does now, but was an island surrounded by lakes and swamps. The ship of Joseph and his companions landed at the nearby hill of Wearioll. Here the holy father lay down to rest, sticking his staff into the ground. And when he woke up, he saw a miracle: the staff took root in the ground, branches, leaves, flowers appeared, and a thorn tree grew from the staff. Thus began the tradition of the Glastonbury Sacred Thorn. A new one is planted from cuttings of an old tree. At Christmas time, a branch of Glastonbury thorn is sent to the current British monarch.

Chalice Well (Chalice Source). The source itself, located deep underground, is covered with a lid. This cover was made in 1919. However, for people a little further downstream, a water outlet was made in the form of a lion's head. You can clearly see here: water with a high iron content turns the stones orange. The water tastes very pleasant, and not even very cold. From here, water flows through a small channel throughout the park. The small town of Glastonbury has three main attractions: the Abbey, the Tor and the Well. Chalice Well (Source of the Chalice) has been here for more than two thousand years, and it is believed that it was here that Joseph of Arimathea hid the Holy Grail. The water in it tastes like blood and everything around it turns bright orange. They say that it is healing. The source of the bowl is also called either the Red Key or the Bloody Key. It is believed that the reddish water symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ, miraculously preserved in the Grail or on the nails of the Crucifixion. The source itself is already deep underground, but a hole is made in the surface above it, covered with a lid. The cover over the spring is made of English oak and decorated with the sacred geometric symbol of a fish and the legendary bleeding spear of steel. Today, the Spring Bowl Park has been declared a nature reserve, a holy place intended for healing, contemplation and achieving harmony of the soul. The park is replete with flowers, sacred symbols and sculpture. There are withered, wrinkled yew trees, a very old apple tree and one of Glastonbury's famous thorn trees. Visitors are allowed to drink water from the Spring of the Chalice. Near the Spring of the Bowl, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a yew tree that grew here two thousand years ago.

At each level there are places to sit around the stream. In a small, shallow, ankle-deep pool, you can wash your feet if you wish. Even further downstream is the main body of water of the park, designed in the form of a symbol of a source, vesica piscis - two circles forming a sacred geometric symbol of a fish. There are candles and lit incense sticks throughout the park. Exactly at 12 o'clock every day the bell rings - twice, with a break of several minutes. This time is reserved for those wishing to meditate, and everyone else is asked to be quiet and turn off their cell phones, just in case.

Glastonbury Tor ("tor" translated from Celtic, "hill").
Now visitors can use a quite comfortable stone path along a gentler slope to the top. Tower of St. Michael.

Glastonbury Tor's location is amazing: it lies on the so-called "St Michael's Lane" - a straight line connecting St Michael's Church in Cornwall, the Tor and the circle of stones at Avebury. The Tor itself is a stone hill of natural origin, on which layers of hard and soft stone alternate, and in order to preserve the hill, many, many years ago it was given a stepped shape. Once upon a time, its slopes were one of the few places in the surrounding area that did not flood in winter. Since then, gardens have been laid out on it, and the top has traditionally been used by various cults for rituals. The surviving ruins are St. Michael's Tower, the remains of a 14th-century church built on the site of a previous one destroyed by an earthquake in 1275. It stood for about 100 years when the Dispersal of the Monasteries occurred in 1539, and suffered the same fate as Glastonbury Abbey.

However, it is believed that in earlier times Druids gathered here, and another name for the hill - Inis Vitrin - is also familiar to those interested in the stories of Arthur and Merlin. The glass island is the same one on which Arthur received his famous sword Excalibur, the same one on which King Melvas hid Arthur's wife Guinevere, who was later rescued by Lancelot.